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Angler Audit: New Silverhand

Zackeroni9

Zackeroni9

Member
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Angler Audit:
New Silverhand
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The official source for information regarding the suitability of fishing grounds. The following content consists of direct fieldnotes taken by one of our field researchers.

Task: Inspect New Silverhand Fishing Tournament grounds for any violations of proper fishing standards.

Reason for inspection: The fishing grounds are advertised as being located in a cave, which is not adequate for fishing unless there is direct
sky access.

Inspection notes: As expected, the fishing grounds are located within a cave where there is no sky access. This halves the rate of attracting fish making sport for tourneygoers a "slugfest."

The fishing groundsare rather small. The pond itself measures approximately 46 metres in length and 22 metres in width at its furthest points. However, due to the shape of the fishing docks and the overgrown Seagrass close to the edges of the water, the effective fishing area is reduced to approximately 40 metres in length and 17 metres in width.

A standard Fishing Tournament hosted by Frodii typically yields around 10–12 fishers at most. Expected participation for a tournament held during a festival is bound to be much higher. The size of these grounds are too small for fair fishing, making several issues likely during a tournament. Participants may cross lines, leading to tangles, while the splashing of hooked fish may make it difficult to tell whose hook actually has the fish, potentially causing an angler to mistake another fisher's catch for their own. The crowded docks would also make it easy for fellow anglers to accidentally—or intentionally—pick up each other's catches, potentially leading to an unsportsmanlike event.

Inspection of the surrounding land provides hope that alternative fishing grounds could still be constructed to allow for adequate fishing. Additionally, the lack of obstructions above the current fishing grounds shows that they could still be used if the ceiling were to be carved out, leaving only the small size and crowding issues to be resolved.

Conclusion: The New Silverhand Fishing Tournament grounds are highly inadequate to host a proper Fishing Tournament due to their underground location and inadequate space for the expected number of anglers.

It is advised that New Silverhand is not to be voted for to host a festival featuring a Fishing Tournament until these violations can be resolved.

-Zackeroni9
fishing field expert.
August 28th 2026
 
+1
This will probably ruin multiple people's tourney experience, mine included.
Zackeroni9's audit hits the nail on the head:
  • Halved Catch Rates: Being fully underground without sky access cuts the bite rate in half, turning what should be a fun event into an frustratingly slow grind.
  • Severe Overcrowding: At only 40m x 17m of usable space, jamming 12+ festival anglers onto those docks is going to cause constant line tangles, stolen catches, and chaos.
Unless the cave ceiling is carved out for sky access and the docks are expanded, hosting a festival tournament here is a recipe for a miserable slugfest. -1 for New Silverhand until these issues are fixed.
 
Since you went to all this trouble, it’s only fair that I do the same; so I’ll speak in a language you’ll understand.

The tournament area you see is a remnant of the New Silverhand I tournament held in September 2024; back then, fishing wasn’t on anyone’s radar—in fact, we were the ones who first brought the fishing tournament to Loka as a player-organized festival (If you don’t believe me, go to the “updates” channel on Discord and scroll back to September 2024—back then, there was no information on where to fish; that information was added in this update thanks to the Silverhand tournament.). As I said, back then, fishing was a trivial, unnecessary activity; people just fished in between Frodi’s tournaments. What I mean is, the goal wasn’t to catch more fish, but to catch the heaviest fish and, as a result, win the prize—which was a Hex-lore sword in the first tournament and a Hex-lore fishing rod in this one. This isn’t just any tournament; it’s a festival organized by the players, and these Hex-lore items were created by MrPisquallie—in other words, you’ll be receiving Hex-lore from a player who joined the game back in 2017. It will please everyone to know that real effort went into winning these prizes, because I’ve seen with my own eyes that some people have been sucking up to strangers just to get Lore from these long-time players—of course, I won’t go into details about that here.

Below, I’m listing the weights caught by those who really put in the effort:
1. obuth, 209 lbs
2. Andrew, 191 lbs
3. diselokail, 150 lbs
I’m sharing these results because some things can truly be achieved through hard work; if you want to catch plenty of fish, I can show you the way to the Kalros documents.

Another issue concerns this 12-person scenario you created based on your calculations. Below, I’ve attached a photo showing the least crowded moment at the New Silverhand I tournament area. You can see empty spaces in every section; if I counted correctly, there are 17 people in this photo. There are also empty spaces beneath the spot where the photo was taken. Therefore, unfortunately, your “perfect equation” is incorrect. Additionally, there are pools of water beneath the town; of course, I’m not suggesting people go there to fish, but if you’re someone who doesn’t like crowds, you can fish in those areas as well.
132.webp
Another issue is fish being stolen;
In our first tournament, we mentioned that if someone steals your fish before the tournament area is fully open to everyone, and you report it to us with the necessary evidence, the thief could be disqualified from the tournament—and we actually helped one person with this. When we spoke with the person who stole the fish, we made sure they returned it to the victim to prevent their disqualification. In fact, when you catch a fish, based on the information displayed in the chat, if the thief hadn’t returned the fish to the victim, we would have recorded the fish as having been caught by the victim, since its weight was noted in the chat log; however, the victim didn’t win because other participants caught heavier fish.

What I’ve written doesn’t mean we won’t create a new fishing tournament area; it just means we don’t have the time to do so right now, and as I mentioned above, we’re tying this to a meaningful prize. Our goal isn’t for someone who catches a fish by chance to leapfrog ahead of you with a one-time stroke of luck; it’s for you to win a big prize by putting in real effort. Of course, luck is an important factor in fishing tournaments; however, the twofold difference in fishing durations acts as a deterrent for those trying to take shortcuts.

As I mentioned, we’ll be renovating the tournament area. However, the tournament area isn’t as large as you might think; since Silverhand is an old town, preserving its historical elements is our top priority. You can’t even imagine how much effort I put into getting permission for the new arena you see here.

Finally, I won’t beg you to vote for us, and I won’t go around making offers like some towns do. I have just one suggestion: go vote for someone else.

May the best offer win :D (Because player voted tournaments are now just that)
 
yunusdmrc01 said:
Since you went to all this trouble, it’s only fair that I do the same; so I’ll speak in a language you’ll understand.

The tournament area you see is a remnant of the New Silverhand I tournament held in September 2024; back then, fishing wasn’t on anyone’s radar—in fact, we were the ones who first brought the fishing tournament to Loka as a player-organized festival (If you don’t believe me, go to the “updates” channel on Discord and scroll back to September 2024—back then, there was no information on where to fish; that information was added in this update thanks to the Silverhand tournament.). As I said, back then, fishing was a trivial, unnecessary activity; people just fished in between Frodi’s tournaments. What I mean is, the goal wasn’t to catch more fish, but to catch the heaviest fish and, as a result, win the prize—which was a Hex-lore sword in the first tournament and a Hex-lore fishing rod in this one. This isn’t just any tournament; it’s a festival organized by the players, and these Hex-lore items were created by MrPisquallie—in other words, you’ll be receiving Hex-lore from a player who joined the game back in 2017. It will please everyone to know that real effort went into winning these prizes, because I’ve seen with my own eyes that some people have been sucking up to strangers just to get Lore from these long-time players—of course, I won’t go into details about that here.

Below, I’m listing the weights caught by those who really put in the effort:
1. obuth, 209 lbs
2. Andrew, 191 lbs
3. diselokail, 150 lbs
I’m sharing these results because some things can truly be achieved through hard work; if you want to catch plenty of fish, I can show you the way to the Kalros documents.

Another issue concerns this 12-person scenario you created based on your calculations. Below, I’ve attached a photo showing the least crowded moment at the New Silverhand I tournament area. You can see empty spaces in every section; if I counted correctly, there are 17 people in this photo. There are also empty spaces beneath the spot where the photo was taken. Therefore, unfortunately, your “perfect equation” is incorrect. Additionally, there are pools of water beneath the town; of course, I’m not suggesting people go there to fish, but if you’re someone who doesn’t like crowds, you can fish in those areas as well.
View attachment 15893
Another issue is fish being stolen;
In our first tournament, we mentioned that if someone steals your fish before the tournament area is fully open to everyone, and you report it to us with the necessary evidence, the thief could be disqualified from the tournament—and we actually helped one person with this. When we spoke with the person who stole the fish, we made sure they returned it to the victim to prevent their disqualification. In fact, when you catch a fish, based on the information displayed in the chat, if the thief hadn’t returned the fish to the victim, we would have recorded the fish as having been caught by the victim, since its weight was noted in the chat log; however, the victim didn’t win because other participants caught heavier fish.

What I’ve written doesn’t mean we won’t create a new fishing tournament area; it just means we don’t have the time to do so right now, and as I mentioned above, we’re tying this to a meaningful prize. Our goal isn’t for someone who catches a fish by chance to leapfrog ahead of you with a one-time stroke of luck; it’s for you to win a big prize by putting in real effort. Of course, luck is an important factor in fishing tournaments; however, the twofold difference in fishing durations acts as a deterrent for those trying to take shortcuts.

As I mentioned, we’ll be renovating the tournament area. However, the tournament area isn’t as large as you might think; since Silverhand is an old town, preserving its historical elements is our top priority. You can’t even imagine how much effort I put into getting permission for the new arena you see here.

Finally, I won’t beg you to vote for us, and I won’t go around making offers like some towns do. I have just one suggestion: go vote for someone else.

May the best offer win :D (Because player voted tournaments are now just that)
Click to expand...
Hello, and thank you for your timely and well-put-together response to our audit yunusdmrc01! We have read through your response and would like to respond on a few points and give some clarification.

We’re always delighted to see interest in the sport of fishing, especially seeing as a prior event was put together back when few cared for the sport, only the prize. This was on our radar and acknowledged, but was unfortunately not a part of our report. We understand the history behind the grounds, and applaud you for the effort and cost put into the rewards and all the extra strings and lines that have to be pulled to assemble a Fishing Tournament of this calibre.

As a committee of seasoned fishers that have cared for the sport over the years, we look at various angles and take in our own experience and observations to come to our own conclusions and outlooks. This does not mean that they will be 100% accurate. Our observations on the size and crowding do not mean that fishing on these grounds is impossible or unenjoyable. However, we would like to go into more detail on our points.

Regarding the grounds partaking in a cave, this is not to say that hard work cannot be put in to win, as that’s the whole point of the sport! Hard work is exactly what we all put into making a big catch. Observations from recent times and through the years yield a high level of dissatisfaction among anglers who can’t even reel in a big catch. We find there is greater satisfaction in catching a prize fish and being beaten out than in never having made a significant catch at all. While being able to catch fewer fish does not eliminate the satisfaction of landing a big fish, being able to take full advantage of one's time fishing makes the experience more rewarding and could encourage higher participation among anglers. Additionally, the ceiling protects the water from rain, which boosts the rate of fishing and increases the likelihood of fish biting the hook rather than reeling in other objects.

The main issues with the overcrowding come to well-seasoned fishers. Though most anglers simply see fishing as a cast-and-catch, there’s far more that goes into working hard for that big catch. Optimal strategies require careful observation of the splashes around the hook. Frequent splashes indicate that fish are interested. To take advantage of this, a seasoned angler may recast their line for better odds, resulting in more catches. More catches simply means higher chances of catching that prize fish. Unfortunately, taking advantage of this technique requires clear water in about a 13x13 space around the hook to properly gauge the frequency of fish. With many other hooks in the vicinity, it becomes impossible to tell which hook the fish are interested in, taking away from those who work hard for their yield and turning the tournament more into a luck-fest.

In the original announcement for the festival, it was merely advertised that fish must be caught in the cave, with no elaboration on additional fishing spots. If there are additional places for fishing, that would certainly help mitigate the issues, but we understand if no action can be taken on short notice.

Furthermore, we’re glad to hear that issues of stolen catches were properly dealt with in the prior tournament, regardless of if said catches were winners. The primary issue isn’t whether such incidents can be resolved, but that they happen in the first place. Preventing these instances from occurring would make it easier for both anglers and organizers, rather than requiring organizers to intervene after the fact.

Your stand on the hard work of the prize is valid, and perhaps we could be biased in our viewpoint of what makes a fair tournament. As you’ve pointed out, the twofold difference in yield could filter the participants and winners down to those who have the passion in their hearts and are there for the love of the sport rather than those looking to make easy cash and pawn their winnings. This doesn’t nullify the basis of luck in such a tournament, however, this is a reasonable point and heightens our outlook on the tournament if New Silverhand wins the vote for the upcoming festival.

Finally, we appreciate your neutral stance on our personal vote. Though we cannot personally reveal what our vote was, we will inform you that our votes were not influenced by bribery from other festival organizers, nor were Fishing Tournaments even a consideration to our votes in the slightest. As close to our heart as the sport is, we all have our own other interests and reasons to pitch our votes one way or another. Also, we too discourage the bribing tactics of other organizers to win votes, and do not believe that should be the deciding factor.

We give you this response in hopes that we come to a mutual understanding of each-other, and we will be sure to reach out to event organizers for any additional information or context we may need for better judgement and assessment in our future audits. In the case that the New Silverhand Festival takes place after winning the bid, we will still be interested in participating in the Fishing Tournament.

-Zackeroni9
Fishing field expert

P.S. Out-of-character real Loka talk here, the seagrass is more of an issue with recent updates to fishing mechanics. They made the requirement for fishing much more strict to where it doesn’t consider most waterlogged blocks as part of the water depth anymore, nor when the bobber jumps out of the water for a brief moment. This is why you can often see the warning that fish can only be caught in 3-block deep water when the area you are fishing in is plenty deep. The seagrass can cause this to happen more frequently.
 
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